Cheap Will UK — From £69, Legally Valid

Free UK will services — and what they actually cost

Before paying for a will, it's worth knowing what's available for £0. The honest answer: several charity-backed schemes will draft a basic will at no charge, but every one of them has a condition. Here's the full picture so you can choose with eyes open:

• Will Aid (November only). Participating solicitors waive their fee in exchange for a suggested donation to a coalition of charities — typically £100 for a single will, £180 for mirror wills. So the "free" really means "redirect the cost to charity, with a suggested amount". Bookings open in October and slots fill quickly.
• British Red Cross Free Will Service. Open to all ages, year-round. The Red Cross pays the solicitor's fee. The expectation — not a legal obligation, but the entire reason the scheme exists — is that you'll consider leaving the Red Cross a gift in the will.
• Macmillan Cancer Support Free Will Service. Age 55+ only. Same model as the Red Cross: charity covers the fee, you're expected to consider a legacy gift to Macmillan.
• Free Wills Month (March and October). Available to people 55+ in participating areas. A consortium of charities funds will writing through local solicitors during two months a year. Availability is limited and varies by region.
• Octopus Legacy. Free online wills for over-18s, funded by their probate and estate-planning business. Reasonable if you're comfortable with their data-sharing terms — read the small print.
• Bequest. Free basic single wills. Mirror wills and more advanced features (trusts, complex distributions) cost extra.

Free wills make sense if you fit the eligibility criteria, can wait for an availability window, and are happy with the charity legacy expectation. They don't make sense if you're under 55 and outside Octopus/Bequest's product range, you want your will drafted in 24 hours, or you'd rather pay a small one-off fee than be in a queue with a charity ask attached.

For everyone else, £69 buys you a professionally reviewed will with no strings, in your inbox tomorrow.

What "cheap" actually means in UK will writing

There's a real spread of will-writing prices in the UK, but the cheapest legally valid, professionally reviewed will sits around £69. Below that, you're typically in DIY-kit territory — a paper template you fill in yourself with no oversight. DIY kits are cheap (£20–£40) but they fail in probate at a high rate, usually because of witnessing or signature errors that a review process would have caught.

Above £69, the price climbs sharply: £100 at Farewill, £150+ at Co-op Legal Services, £150–£400 at high-street solicitors. The legal product is the same — what's changing is the overhead structure of the provider.

Where DIY wills go wrong

A WHSmith or Lawpack kit produces a legally valid will if it's completed and witnessed correctly. The problem is "if". DIY wills that fail in probate fail for four predictable reasons:

• Witnessing errors. The two witnesses must be present together when you sign, and watch each other sign. Neither can be a beneficiary or married to a beneficiary — anything they're left in the will becomes void. The single most common DIY failure.
• Ambiguous wording. "I leave my house to my children" sounds clear, but if you have step-children, ex-partner's children, or unborn grandchildren the courts have to decide what you meant. A professionally reviewed will uses defined terms that pre-empt those arguments.
• Missing residual clause. If your will lists specific gifts but doesn't say what happens to "everything else", whatever's left passes under the Intestacy Rules — defeating the entire point of writing a will.
• Failure to update. A will is automatically revoked by marriage in England and Wales. Many DIY wills sit unmodified through a marriage, divorce, or new child and are no longer effective.

The £69 review process catches all four. An estate planner reads every draft before release, flags risk factors, and provides signing instructions in plain English. The cost saving over a solicitor is in the production model, not in skipping the safety check.

How ClearLegacy can charge less

• No office overhead. We don't rent a Georgian building in a market town. Every solicitor meeting you attend in person is paying for that rent.
• Structured questions. A solicitor bills you for 45 minutes to walk through executor choices. Our online form covers the same ground in 15 minutes at your kitchen table.
• One product, done well. A high-street firm does conveyancing, divorce, commercial leases and wills. We do wills. Specialisation cuts cost.
• No subscription model. Some online providers add monthly storage fees that quietly double the cost over a few years. Our £69 is one-off.

Cheap doesn't mean low quality

Every ClearLegacy will is checked by our automated review before it's released to you. Drafting from a structured questionnaire produces fewer errors than ad-hoc dictation. Plain-English signing instructions reduce execution mistakes. Cheap, in our context, means low overhead — not low quality.

What you don't get for £69

Honesty matters. There are things £69 doesn't cover:

• An in-person meeting with a solicitor (we are not solicitors)
• Active inheritance tax planning beyond what a will can do
• Discretionary trusts for vulnerable beneficiaries
• Contested-estate advice or Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 work

If your estate genuinely needs any of those, a solicitor is the right choice and we'll say so during review.

Who a £69 will is right for (and who should pay more)

A reviewed online will at £69 is the right choice for most UK adults. It's not the right choice for every UK adult. Here's the honest segmentation:

£69 is right for you if:

• You're an individual or couple with a straightforward estate (home, savings, investments, named beneficiaries).
• Your total estate value is under £325,000 — or under £500,000 with a home you're leaving to direct descendants — meaning Inheritance Tax probably isn't a concern.
• You want to appoint executors, name guardians for minor children, distribute assets to specific people, and exclude others (former partners, estranged family). All standard will territory.
• You're comfortable signing your own will in front of two witnesses (we give you the instructions).

You should probably pay more (and use a solicitor) if:

• You own a business and need succession planning baked into the will.
• Your estate is well above £500,000 and you need active IHT mitigation through discretionary trusts, life-interest trusts, or gifting strategies.
• You have property in multiple countries with different inheritance regimes.
• You expect the will to be contested — a previous partner, estranged adult child, or disputed business interest.
• You have vulnerable beneficiaries (someone with addiction issues, financial naivety, or means-tested benefits) where a discretionary trust is the right vehicle.

We'll tell you which group you're in during the review. If the £69 product isn't right for your circumstances, we'll say so before you pay — not after.

ClearLegacy pricing — fixed fees, no surprises

How we compare on price

Prices are typical published rates at time of writing (May 2026). Sources: provider websites; Law Society for solicitor ranges.

Frequently asked questions